One Last Chance To Hold Me Close
by GirlDressedInBlack
Summary: A collection of drabbles about the more fluffy side of Florence and her Mistress' relationship. Spin-off of 'One Last Chance To Be Good' but it isn't vital that you read that at all and you can ignore this as canon if you don't like it. MissyxOC
1. Chapter 1

Also a spin-off of 'One Last Chance To Be Good' but the more fluffy edition- enjoy! I own nothing except for Florence.

Or complain if that's your style, haha!

Feel free to point out errors.

...

The creatures' spindly legs scuttle across the planet's rocky surface. They crawl through derelict buildings and abandoned alleys almost cautiously, waiting.

Florence can't see them. She can feel them coming though- in the increasing sense of despair which tunes itself to her fears as they hone in on their prey.

Fear of heights is first, the most close to the surface. The monsters kick up dust in her mind, flooding her with memories of being in high up places. Nausea strikes and she finds herself as immobilised as the Mistress is. The Time Lady is-

The first layer of dirt is scraped away.

Thoughts scarper like chickens under the gaze of a fox. Speech. Her mouth closes. That speech she made. The stares of those people as she-

Not now, the Mistress needs-

The creatures dig deeper still.

Failure.

The fear swallows her whole as not memories but her imagination captures her this time.

All the ways she could fail in life- could have failed in life- she's going to die now.

Failing again. She's failing the Mistress even now.

The Mistress needs help.

Florence manages to break free for the precious few seconds it takes to locate the Time Lady still crushing herself against the dusty wall as if-

The original fear is unearthed.

Dark.

She sees nothing now.

The darkness swallows her whole and she can do absolutely nothing against it.

So Florence waits.

It will leave, won't it?

Someone always turned on the light, didn't they?

Won't it be okay?

She doesn't know how long she waits but nobody comes to find her.

No one tells her that it will be okay.

Someone else is waiting too.

They are terrified.

More so than Florence and she can feel it.

Carefully Florence reaches out with her mind, extending her compassion to the someone.

The someone lightens and the brightness is shocking in its brilliance.

The haze of fear is lifted.

Florence can see again as one of the creatures creeps into view. The Mistress stands behind her, supported by a dry, old wall. She seems smaller somehow, eyes rimmed with red and lips parted in hopelessness as her knuckles slowly unclench.

The human feeds urgency into their connection. Those sorrowful eyes meet hers and together they run.

Florence takes the Time Lady's hand, squeezing it tightly, an assurance of her presence.

They reach the T.A.R.D.I.S in record time and the Mistress gets them off planet even quicker. Gently their connection is disengaged and Florence watches as the woman disappears down one of the corridors, eyes averted from her own.

"I'm just going to have a nice cup of tea while you do your human things." The T.A.R.D.I.S worries in the back of Florence's head, taking care not to disturb the fears which will need to be carefully buried again.

"No, I don't think she does want us right now." Her voice is quiet and the T.A.R.D.I.S falls silent too, obviously shaken by whatever damage the Mistress has sustained.

After a while Florence turns off down another corridor, opening the door into the closest room. The T.A.R.D.I.S seems hesitant but Florence merely sets her sights on the room's main feature.

Hours later Florence is lying in her own bed. Old fears burnt into ashes and buried deep underground in the hopes that they can never be resurrected. Now she feels only a mild satisfaction and the strange drifting that comes just before you fall asleep.

The bed dips and the human freezes.

"How can you be so content?" Almost instantly she relaxes again.

"Mistress?" The Mistress sits on the edge of the bed, eyes still red and skin ghostly pale. Her gaze locks with Florence's in an attempt to feign normality.

"Your mind. You are calm." Her whisper is broken, choked off. The human wraps her arms around the Time Lady, pulling her closer.

The Mistress doesn't cry but she comes close, drawing in a shuddering breath as Florence extends a connection once again. She grasps hold of it.

"You are not alone Mistress." The Mistress can feel the human's physical and mental warmth grounding her. Florence pushes as much calm as she can towards the Mistress, holding her tightly as the aloneness retreats.

The human presses her lips against the Time Lady's forehead and pulls her further into her embrace. Gently she lays the woman down beside her, letting the Gallifreyan rest her head against her chest.

"Us humans- we're stupidly loyal." The Mistress' arms curl around her companion's waist, "Now sleep, you silly Time Lady."

The next morning when the Mistress goes to make a cup of tea she smiles at the sight of the burning planet on the console screen and the neatly torn out piece of paper next to it.

 _They deserved it._

Very loyal indeed.

...

Okay so this was meant to be fluffy but it took a while to get there… ah, whatever!


	2. Chapter 2

Florence was quite comfortable, the arch of her neck cradled against the Mistress' stomach as she rested her head in her lap.

The Mistress had been getting headaches. Fortunately not related to those drums but nonetheless irritating. And so it had fallen upon her pet human to relieve them- or so the Time Lady had claimed when she had burst into the library while Florence was taking notes from one of the textbooks she had brought with her (unfortunately having future knowledge would not appeal to the exam board) and proceeded to grab her head.

Understandably the human had needed a more thorough explanation as to why her head would help with the Mistress' headaches anymore than a cocktail of Earth drugs would help with her madness.

"You humans-" Florence had noted that this was a step-up from being primitive apes "- have a tendency for all-consuming emotions and I need to relax. Gallifreyans are hard-wired to think constantly and in many different directions which doesn't bode well for our heads if we do more than sit around with fancy clothes on fancy chairs." The girl arches an eyebrow at this but doesn't mention the irony- "If you just sit there and be calm I can get into your mind and give my brain a rest." With a sigh Florence lay down her books.

"You really think that would help?" The Mistress rolls her eyes.

"No, of course not- I just want an excuse to get inside your head- What do you think?" Ignoring the shouting Gallifreyan, Florence closes her eyes.

"Come on then." The Time Lady stops her tirade abruptly.

"What?!" Then calmer, "Oh, I didn't think it would be that easy." The human smiles slightly, focussing on clearing her mind. Pleased the Mistress joins her companion on the sofa. Almost tenderly she rests her hand on the girl's forehead.

Florence sits in a garden, a small affair only extending outwards for about five meters in every direction. The seat swings lightly in the breeze, chains linking it to somewhere in the nonexistent sky. The Mistress can feel the warmth of sunlight on her skin, soaking through her clothes, as if it were real and the caress of the wind which pushes the delicate wooden bench through the air. She notices the scent of Honeysuckle, barely there but distinctive.

"It's amazing how much you humans can do with your minds given how undeveloped they are." The Time Lady is rather impressed by her human. She didn't expect much more than the feeling of calm and blank space. But the fact that her companion is able to mentally produce an environment inducing the feeling and project it so vividly is frankly astounding.

"I've had practise. I'd always had trouble getting to sleep." The Mistress acknowledges the information with a slight nod of the head then sits next to the girl, enjoying the peace.

When they've been sitting on the swinging bench for a time that even the Mistress isn't sure of (being out of her own time-sensitive mind is nice for once although she doesn't doubt it will be disorientating when she goes back) the reality of the garden spikes. The human blinks for a second and the garden flickers in and out of focus. The girl herself disappears for a moment before reappearing again as the landscape slides into clarity.

"I've fallen asleep. I don't know how long I could maintain this space." The Time Lady nods and stands, dusting her hands together.

"Well it worked and that's the important thing. Good work on the projection- we could make a baby Time Lord of you yet." Florence smiles good naturedly, a stark contrast to her usual reaction, as the Mistress vanishes from the garden.

"I love you." Mumbles the still vaguely conscious human, head having fallen into the Time Lady's lap.

"You humans and your simple feelings."

Even in her barely aware state Florence smiles, recognising that the devotion she has is- indeed- simple but not caring either way.


	3. Chapter 3

They'd been on the planet now for a few rotations. It was one of the few that the Mistress was not yet infamous on so the two were taking the opportunity to have a holiday of sorts. The warm, almost humid air was soothing after their last misadventure so Florence has opted to spend her days taking in the scenery and her nights resting in her hotel room with the window wide open. The slow nature of life here was a really nice change from usual and even the Mistress had deigned to spend time in a hotel room rather than just her Tardis. Her room is just across from Florence's which is reassuring if anything did go wrong. The Time Lady is most likely only making a pit stop so the Tardis can refuel and she can start sourcing some spare parts again but the time spent away from each other gives the human enough chance to try and convince herself- again- that she could not be infatuated with the crazy, superior, possibly evil Time Lady.

Florence is just staring at the soft blue ceiling as the sun sets in a deep ochre, letting herself drift off with the call of night on their third 'day' on the planet when the door bursts open.

Immediately she throws herself behind the bed and fires off a charge from the weapon she keeps beside her.

She's a good shot so is surprised to hear the laugh coming from the other side of the room.

That is until she recognises it. She sighs in exasperation as the door shuts.

"Mistress." She huffs in relief, gun still ready in her hands as she stands. The woman opposite dries tears from her eyes, grinning widely.

"I forgot what a good shot you were." The Time lady says in something which sounds too close to reminiscence. Florence eyes her warily, taking inventory of her change of outfit and makeup. She still doesn't put down the gun.

"You've changed clothes." Florence says nonchalantly. In response something guarded drops over the Mistress' face even as she smiles that slightly too nice smile.

"Yes- I do have other clothes than three outfits you know. Whole Tardis full of them in fact." She says genially. Florence meets Missy's gaze blankly and lets herself read the surface thoughts there. Immediately the Mistress clamps down upon the attack.

"Ah, ah, ah! None of that now." She chides, stepping around the bed. Florence frowns.

"You aren't right." She says, "This isn't the you here right now." She continues. The Mistress frowns.

"I'd hoped you wouldn't realise so soon." She murmurs, stopping abruptly where she is.

"When are you from?" The human asks in confusion, "The future obviously. You aren't as put together as usual so it can't be going great but why would you come to me unless?"

I'm dead.

The words seem to echo even though she doesn't speak them.

"Yes. That." The Mistress confirms. They are silent for a moment before Florence hesitantly steps forwards and wraps the Time Lady in her arms. The gun drops.

"I'm so sorry." She says, pulling the woman closer, "I'm so sorry." The Mistress holds her back, head resting on the human's shoulder.

"It was nothing you did. I just. Rassilon-" She chokes out, tears prickling her eyes, "I missed you Florence. Rassilon how much I've missed you." Florence swallows, arms tight around the woman as they both cry.

"How does it happen?" The human asks, shuddering.

"Don't ask me!" Missy sobs, teeth clenched, "Not that." She adds more quietly. The Mistress separates them both, keeping hold of one of Florence's hands in each of hers.

"Never that, please." She pleads, her face just as red as her companion's. Florence nods, swallowing again and blinking enough to clear the tears.

"Okay. Not that." The human confirms. Their gazes meet, both unsure about what to do with this moment out of their linear timelines.

Gently the Mistress places her hand against Florence's cheek and kisses her tenderly. It tastes of salt. Florence starts crying anew, face cupped in the Time Lady's palm.

"Please don't." Breathes out Missy, "Please don't cry. We have so much more time ahead of us- you and that me. So many lifetimes and adventures." She crumples onto the bed, Florence following.

"We grow old together a few times- equally old." She confides after a breath, "It's strange, aging with you but a good kind of strange. You made it good." The Time Lady admits.

"You have always been a lullaby to me. Sometimes now you're gone I hear the drums I think." She says, the warm anchor of her companion's hand gripped around hers.

"Your presence- your single heartbeat- it's soothing. I stay up late listening to it sometimes. It speeds up at times and I wonder if it's trying to match mine. Then sometimes mine slows just before I fall asleep and I wonder if it's trying to meet yours." Florence sniffs, pressing her lips against the Mistress'.

The Mistress swallows her guilt down as the sun begins to rise again. She stands from the bed, taking the time to gently redress and rearrange her companion and tuck the covers gently around her.

"I'm sorry." She whispers, closing her eyes as she grabs away her human's memories.

"I-"

There's a rustle of skirts and Florence could almost swear she'd heard the Mistress only a few seconds ago.

She supposes that today too she would go to the small lake only a few minutes behind the hotel- maybe there she could distract herself from her thoughts and avoid her mind conjuring up any more Mistresses.

She rubs at her eyes, confused by their bleariness. They come away wet and she frowns. This planet was really more humid than she was used to.


End file.
